Electrical Power Supply

Categories / City Services/Housing and Communal Services
ELECTRICAL POWER SUPPLY. Prototype electrical torches in St. Petersburg were lit in 1873 on Odesskaya Street. Twelve electrical torches designed by P.N. Yablochkov were installed in 1879 for the lighting of Liteiny Bridge. In 1883 an electric power station was constructed on a wooden barge on the Moyka River; it transmitted energy to 32 electrical torches lighting Nevsky Prospect from the Chief Admiralty to Anichkov Bridge. The first industrial electric power station in St. Petersburg was the direct current-generating station in the Winter Palace (1888, engineer V.L. Pashkov). In 1897-98 the first alternating current-generating stations were built: No.1 (96 Obvodny Canal Embankment), No.2 (12 Novgorodskaya St.), No.3 (104 Fontanka River Embankment). After the tramways were set going in 1906 electrical power station No. 4 (Tramvaynaya) was set into operation (3 Atamanskaya Street). By 1916 there were 105 electrical power stations in Petrograd with the total capacity of 193,000 kW and the energy output reaching 478,000,000 kW an hour (about 50% of energy supply was provided by four central electric power stations). By June 1918 the major electric power stations in Petrograd were nationalised. Krasny Oktyabr (Red October), the fifth national electric power station and the 6th, Lenin Volkhovsky Hydroelectric Power Plant, were launched in 1927 in accordance with the plan of the State Committee on Electrification of Russia (adopted in 1920). The unified power grid with the united dispatching control was established in Leningrad in the same years, with 110 kV power transmission lines and 35 kV cable city mains. Additionally, Elektrotok Trust was founded (known as Lenenergo since 1932). By 1940 steam turbines with the capacity of 50 MW and water turbines with the capacity of 24 MW started operating in Leningrad. Electric substations and high-voltage lines with the capacity of 35 and 110 kW were built, as was the first power transmission line with the capacity of 220 kW. The electric energy output in Leningrad before WWII exceeded 3,100,000,000 kW an hour, the heat supply equalled 918,000 Gcal. By the beginning of the Siege of 1941-44 nearly 70 % of the power supply in Leningrad was discontinued. The electrical power supply of the enterprises serving the front was provided by thermoelectric power plants No.1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 (Slutskaya Plant). By 1942 the stock of fuel in the city was exhausted, and the output of electrical energy decreased dramatically. A consumption quota was introduced, and tramway transportation stopped. The energy blockade of Leningrad was lifted in September 1942, when Volkhovsky Hydroelectric Power Plant started providing the city with energy via power transmission lines and a cable line laid along the bottom of Ladoga Lake. Energy supply recommenced in the early 1943 (the pre-war level of production was achieved in 1949). In 1950-80s some new major thermoelectric power stations were launched (including Pervomaysky, Kirishsky, Severny and Yuzhny heating plants) with the total productive capacity over 4.1 GW. The power grid also includes Leningrad Nuclear Power Station (town of Sosnovy Bor) with the capacity of 4 GW (in 2003 its output amounted to 40% of Leningrad power grid capacity) and 750 kV power transmission lines. The boiler units of all urban heating plant stations have been converted to operate on natural gas and black oil. By the early 1990s the capacity of Leningrad power grid amounted to nearly 10 GW, while the energy generating output exceeded 50,000,000,000 kW an hour. All the energy-supplying works of the region have been united within the Leningrad power grid by 2002 (55% of the total capacity of Northern Russia power grid), St. Petersburg being its principal consumer. Due to the setback in industrial production electric energy needs of the region reduced from 51,000,000,000 kW an hour (1990) to 37,200,000,000 kW an hour (1994-96).

I. A. Bogdanov. Lenin (real name Ulyanov) Vladimir Ilyich
Pashkov V.L.
Slutskaya Vera Klementievna (Berta Bronislavovna)
Yablochkov Pavel Nikolaevich
Atamanskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 3
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 104
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city
Novgorodskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 12
Obvodny Canal Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 76
Odesskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Народное хозяйство Ленинграда и Ленинградской области в одиннадцатой пятилетке: Стат. сб. Л., 1986 Liteiny Bridge
Admiralty
Anichkov Bridge
Winter Palace
LENENERGO
Siege of 1941-44
Road of Life
1883
1926
1967